This Girl Can

Fear of judgement is stopping many of us from taking part in exercise but, as women up and down the country are proving, it really doesn’t have to.

Millions of women and girls have been inspired to get active by Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign.

2.8 million 14-40 year old women who recognise the campaign say they’ve done some or more activity as a result, 1.6 million of whom say they’ve actually started exercising.

These are findings from independent research, carried out by analysts from TNS BRMB, released on the campaign’s first birthday. The snapshot survey asked a sample of 1000 women in November 2015 about the physical activity they did, their attitudes to exercise and their awareness of the campaign.

Latest figues from Sport England’s 'Active Lives' survey of the amount of sport and physical activity the nation does, shows that for Nov 2016-17 60% of women (13.7m) were classed as 'active' against the Chief Medical Officers measure of 150+ minutes of physical activity per week. But more than a quarter of all women were doing less than 30 minutes - technically inactive and showing that while things have improved there's still some way to go if we're to help people protect their health and stay active.

This Girl Can is a celebration of the active women who are doing their thing no matter how they do it, how they look or even how sweaty they get.

It’s a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations, to inspire more women and girls to wiggle, jiggle, move and prove that judgement is a barrier that can be overcome.

Surrey Girls Do

There are plenty of examples of women making a difference to themselves or others by getting into sport across Surey. Read about just some of them here, and take inspiration from their stories:

Kym made the move from inactive desk jockey in 2016 to vowing to undertake a 10km run for every month in 2017.

Audrey excelled at a new sport which got her out and dong gentle exercise, at the young age of 92.

Young sisters Louisa and Eleanor Piper are taking aim at making the GB squad for Tokyo 2020 - if they can raise the funds...

Coach for Surrey Smashers badminton. Hayley Adcock, tells us what inspires her to help others